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CAPTIVITY TO FREEDOM Lessons from the Week 4

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THE ASSENTION Meaning Bible Overall The Captivity Hhatah – to Darkness – New Earth Following Foreign miss the mark Tree of Knowledge of Good Gods (Ezekiel 16) and Evil

Fall Kareth – a Expulsion from the Garden – Destruction of cutting off Divorced from God (Ezek 16, Jer – God 3) - The Captivity (Daniel 1) Departs (Ez 10), Loss of the Ark, Captivity (Jer 50) Repentance T’shuva – a Return from Captivity Heroes in Captivity – turning around Rebuilt Temple Daniel, , Nehemiah

Redemption Kaphar – The free of Christ ’covering’ - “You will be with me in para - (Isaiah 45:13 – a free reconciliation desos (the garden)”(Luke 23) gift) or atonement Restoration Aliyah – the Tree of Life (chiasm, Rev. 22) Ascension to ascension New and Earth Jerusalem. Type of Kingdom of Light salvation. Meaning Barabbas Prodigal Son Sin Hhatah – to miss the An ‘insurrectionist’ and Left the house & mark murderer in ‘the uprising’ “squandered his wealth in (Mark 15). ‘Son of a father’ wild living” (Luke 15)

Fall Kareth – a cutting off Imprisoned by Rome “He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.” (Luke 15:16) Repentance T’shuva – a turning Pilate “took water and “Father, I have around washed his hands” sinned against and against you”. (Luke 15:18)

Redemption Kaphar – The blood of Jesus instead Given ‘the best robe’. ‘covering’ - be “on us an on our reconciliation or children” (Mat 27) “His father saw him and was atonement Jesus takes the place of filled with compassion for Barabbas on the cross. him” (Luke 15:20) Restoration Aliyah – the Barabbas is freed “this son of mine was dead ascension and is alive again” (Luke 15:24) On 1 March 1980, at an IBM Research Center in New York, Benoit Mandelbrot asked a computer to continually repeat a simple equation (z squared plus c on an imaginary plane). This is what happened…

The mathematical community was astounded that the most simple of equations hid within it an infinitely complex patern - rich in beauty, vastly detailed, and often with repetitions of the original pattern deep in the design.

In the same way the story of redemption through Jesus Christ is the simplest of stories. And yet, the story is deep, beautiful, and repeated in many side narratives. HEBREW CHIASM

A repeating narrative found in scripture makes its main point in a central text or concept.

A central theme found throughout scripture is that “God Remembers Israel” and God Remembers you! JEREMIAH 50:17-20

Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured it, and now at the end King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has gnawed its bones … I will restore Israel to its pasture … search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for the of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare. DANIEL 9:3-19

So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:

“Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land. SHESHBAZZAR'S ALIYAH

Sheshbazzar's aliyah occurred near after Cyrus's Decree, in 538 BC. A smaller group of young made aliya in what became known as Sheshbazzar's Aliyah, returning with treasures originally captured from the .

Ezra 1:7–8,11:

7 And King Cyrus took out all the vessels of the House of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of Jerusalem and had placed them in the temple of his god; 8 Now Cyrus, the king of Persia, took them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and he counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah…

11 All the vessels of silver and gold were five thousand, four hundred; Sheshbazzar brought up [ He'ela / Aliyah ] everything when the exiles were brought up [ He'alot / Aliyah ] from Babylon to Jerusalem. TREASURES RETURNED AND LOST

Solomon’s temple was destroyed when Nebuchadnezzar seized Jerusalem in 586 BC. Some treasures were taken to Babylon, others were not mentioned again. After Cyrus’s decree and the Aliyah, a second and more modest temple was rebuilt.

The had lost:

• The containing the Tablets of Stone, pot of manna and Aaron's rod • The • The holy oil and the fire.

The Second Temple still included:

• The Menorah (golden lamp) • The Table of • The golden of incense, with golden censers. (ROME) 'S ALIYAH The second wave of aliyah, known as Zerubbabel's Aliyah, was led by Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the grandson of , king of Judah, and a descendant of the house of David as well as Joshua the son of Jehozadak who was appointed as high ( ), in 538 BCE.

• According to Ezra 2, a large group of 42,360 made aliyah in this wave to Jerusalem and Judah. • Largely lower class and poor. • The returnees in this aliyah were of the Tribe of Judah, and the . • Settled in their cities and places from before the destruction of the first temple. • Due to the return of many single men, and the lack of Jewish single women, a mixed marriages become common. This wave of aliyah had been on good terms with the Persian government, which allowed them religious autonomy. • Difficult time – lack of infrastructure, tension with the now in the land. • At those times the Jews reinstituted the sacrificial offerings to God with the re- establishment of the altar in 538 BC. • Despite the disruptions and delays the returnees managed to complete the construction of the holy temple in Jerusalem in 516 BCE. EZRA 9:5-15

Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God and prayed:

“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.” EZRA’S ALIYAH The third aliyah was led by Ezra the scribe, in 458 BCE. Around 5,000 Jews were in this wave of returnees (Ezra 7)

• Politically the harassment from various enemies had increased, and they even managed to influence the Persian government to order the stopping of the construction works of refortification of Jerusalem's city walls. • Mixed marriage was a spreading phenomenon. • Ezra begins a series of initiatives upon his arrival in Jerusalem, that was to influence the life of the Jews there and the days of the Second Temple. • Ezra is permitted to transfer holy vessels to the Temple in Jerusalem • Ezra serves in the temple as the high priest. NEHEMIAH 1:4-11

When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said: … I confess the sins we , including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant .

“Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’” WALLS OF JERUSALEM NEHEMIAH’S ALIYAH The fourth aliyah was led by Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah, in 445 BC (Nehemiah 2).

• Nehamiah was the royal cupbearer to the king of Persia. • Nehemiah requested a temporary leave of absence to go to Judah in order to rebuild Jerusalem and repair its city walls and his request was approved by the king. • Nehemiah divided the construction work into 42 groups of families; each was responsible for its own district. • Since Nehemiah found out in advance about the plan of Judah's enemies to come together and wage war against Jerusalem and to wreak destruction, each group would be building and watching at the same time. • After twelve years in the , he kept his promise and returned to Persia to the service of his royal master, but due to the deteriorating security, religious and social conditions in the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem in 431 BC, escorted by the army. • He acted with decisiveness upon his return. He ousted Tobiah the Ammonite who settled himself inside the holy temple and placed back the . • He stopped commerce on the sabbath day and acted against mixed marriage.